The Crisis of the Novel, the Novel of the Crisis. The project of liberation from the ‘naturalist impasse’ in Joris-Karl Huysmans’ Là-Bas

This article attempts to reconstruct the key aspects of the criticism of literary naturalism present in J. K. Huysmans’ 1891 novel Là-Bas. The analysis is based on the opening dialogues of the characters and the following aesthetic considerations which appear to express not only the creative and spiritual transformation of the author himself, but also the ambience of anti-positivist turn of fin de siècle which, entering modernity, tries to free itself from the reductionist frames of naturalism and reveals an increasing interest towards the unconscious.This article attempts to reconstruct the key aspects of the criticism of literary naturalism present in J. K. Huysmans’ 1891 novel Là-Bas. The analysis is based on the opening dialogues of the characters and the following aesthetic considerations which appear to express not only the creative and spiritual transformation of the author himself, but also the ambience of anti-positivist turn of fin de siècle which, entering modernity, tries to free itself from the reductionist frames of naturalism and reveals an increasing interest towards the unconscious